Reply To: Rabbi Aharon Lopiansky on Modern Othodox/Dati vs. Chareidi

My apologies, folks. Here’s a repost with better line breaks:

We, as chareidi Jews, do not define ourselves as “observant Jews,”
and very possibly this is the major distinction between “dati” or
“Modern Orthodox” and “chareidi.” A Modern Orthodox/dati
person puts great stress on fidelity to mitzvah observance.
He has no problem living a culturally secular life. Perhaps he
even embraces it, seeing it as an ideal harmony. (There are even
some who say that beliefs and believing should not enter into
the criteria of defining orthodox, just practice – i.e., orthopractice.)
We, however, feel that a Torah Jew is someone whose mindset
is Torahdig; whose heart throbs with the regesh of kedusha;
whose perspective on life is that this world is merely the
platform for accomplishment, but inherently this world
is transient. The chareidi Jew may (or may not) feel that
it is important to fully function in the outside world, but
we all agree that our thoughts, feelings, values, and culture
must be light-years apart. We shun spectator sports,
entertainment, the dining culture, and many more
cultural phenomena of the society around us.
The place and means for attaining this neshamah of
Yiddishkeit is the intense and formative years at yeshivah.
I am not sure how it happens, but being totally steeped in
Abaye and Rava, working at understanding the emes,
putting all our energies and emotions into Torah,
transforms us. For others, this chinuch also includes
working on shemiras einayim, being in close proximity
to people of stature, and infusing our tefillah with
undisturbed emotional energy. We are chareidi because
we spent all those years in yeshivah. For the difference
between chareidi and dati lies not in the color of the
yarmulke, or even in the exactitude of fulfilling mitzvos.
The difference lies in the mindset. And that mindset is
forged in those years of immersion in the Torah and
avodah, and relative isolation from the world around.
It also imparts an eidelkeit and ehrlichkeit, and all the
other middos tovos that we expect of a ben Torah.

(For context, here’s the rest of the article:)
Even if the army had no negative influence, the robbing
of our youths’ formative years as a ben Torah would be
a price that we could not pay. A chareidi Jew has but one
aspiration in life. He does not have a “dream retirement”
nor even dares contemplate it. We spend decades on the
chinuch of our (many, kein yirbu) children; we pay the vast
majority of our income for their yeshivos; and we hope to
continue working so that if they wish to learn they may
do so, and so that their children in turn should have the
opportunity to realize their spiritual potential.
Our tefillah is one: banim u’vnei vanim oskim b’Torah
uv’mitzvos. Our wildest fantasy is not the dream house
for our golden years; rather, it is being surrounded by
children and children’s children who are all ehrliche Yidden,
ovdei Hashem, and talmidei chachamim to the best of their
ability. The only way that this can happen is by intense
Torah study and total immersion in avodas Hashem at this
most significant part of one’s life.
This is our fiercest desire for every single one of our children,
not just for those mythical “1,800 iluyim.” True, it takes many
of them a few years to become full bnei Torah, but it is the
result that counts. Our definition of a Torah Yid is someone
who at least internally continues his “am l’vadad yishkon,”
even as the realities of life demand that he freely interact
with the world around him.